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Issue Brief

Farm To School - New Jersey

Scope of the Problem  factual statements on the extent of the problem in the past, current, or future

• Goal Statement: To encourage policy making and educational initiatives that foster respect and understanding of the local food system.  
•  What a child eat directly affects the physical structure of his or her brain, as well as memory, attention and reasoning skills
•  Children that are ‘food insufficient’ have significantly lower math skills, more likely to repeat a grade, see a psychologist, or be suspended from school. They are also more susceptible to infection and more likely to miss school
•  Poor diet and inactivity can cause lifestyle related diseases like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, higher risk of stroke
•  In 1960, Americans spent 17.5% of their income on food, and 5.2 on health care. In 2008, these numbers looked quite different. 10% of income was spent on food, while 16% was spent on healthcare.
•  Obesity related medical costs amount to about $147 billion in 2009, and are projected to rise to nearly $344 billion by 2018.
• Children have poorer nutrition are absent more often. One day of absences can cost a district between $9 and $20 per student!
•  “If we want them to do their best in school, we need to provide them with clean, high quality fuel.” Dr. Alan Greene, clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine
•  American Children on average eat about 3.5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, compared to the recommended serving of 7-8 fruits and vegetables
•  On the USDA Healthy eating index, American children score on average a 55.9 out of 100 possible points
•   For more information click here: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/healthyeatingindex.htm

Past Policy & Program Milestones  key legislation and milestones including significant policy and funding shifts, major studies, etc.

• History of the school lunch program in the United States
•  created in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman
•  expanded officially in 1975 to include a school breakfast program
•  expanded again in 1988 to include reimbursements for snacks in enrichment and extra programming not in school hours 
•  National School Lunch Program is regulated under Child Nutrition Act (CNA) and funded through the US Department of Agriculture
•   CNA is reauthorized every 5 years by Congress
•  certain federal nutrition standards apply, as well as mandate to offer free and reduced price lunches to children who qualify
•  In most recent years, CNA is referred to as Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act
•  program is broken into 3 age groups to determine calorie limits:
•   kindergarten-5th grade
•  6th-8th grade
•  9th-12th grade
•  Offer versus serve rule
•   schools are required to serve a full meal, but students can choose to say no to up to two menu items. Students are also able to take smaller portions of any item under this rule.
•  How is the program funded?
•   $10.8 billion dollars a year to pay for NSLP, in addition to commodity food procured by USDA and distributed to districts
•  children in families 130% below the poverty level qualify for free lunch, while those at an income 131-183% of the poverty level will get reduced price lunch marked at about 40 cents a meal
• federal reimbursement rate for free lunches: $2.77 per meal, reduced price: $2.37 and full prices: $0.26 only about $1 is said to be spent on food itself
• schools with below poverty percentages above 60% receive an extra 2 cents on each meal. This has been adjusted for inflation to about 4 cents per meal.
• 31.5 million children served per day
• 20 million served free or reduced price lunch (2/3)
• 11 million children participate in the breakfast program
• Price Breakdown
•  46% of total school lunch cost is the food
• 47% of cost is supplies, contract services, and indirect charges
• some companies break down the price of packaging and advertisements to be about 50% of food cost

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Current Policy & Programs  summary of current policies in the form of legislation, programs, and funding

Key Organizations contacts for public and private organizations

• Government
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• Non-Profit - Service Providing
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• Non-Profit - Advocacy/Membership/Network
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• Foundation
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• Other
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Bibliography   web sites, reports, articles, and other reference material

• http://www.farmtotablenm.org

• http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/fn/childadult/school_lunch.html

•  http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/the-10-most-impressive-farm-to-school-programs

• http://www.farmtotablenm.org

• http://www.edibleeastend.com/departments/notable-edibles/a-new-farm-to-table-school/

• http://www.inspirationgreen.com/farm-food.html

• http://www.farmtoschool.org/files/F2SPolicyFAQ.pdf

• http://www.farmtoschool.org/files/policies_115.pdf

• http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/fn/pdf/guidelines.pdf 

Contributor(s):

What are the components to effective legislation?   A quick glimpse at where we can start

•   Wellness Policy
•   establish a district wellness policy
•  For more information: http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/fn/pdf/guidelines.pdf
•  Teaching and Learning
•   The classroom deepens student’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes about food, culture, health and the environment
•   Hands on opportunities to learn about food in school gardens and to cook healthy foods in the school day are important in motivating students
•   Academic curriculum can contribute to this motivation by increasing food knowledge, thus increasing the consumption of healthy foods
•  Most classrooms will spend about 13 hours a year learning about health and wellness, in comparison to the 50 hours needed as a minimum to facilitate behavior change
•  Food integration into the curriculum is not hard-food is a natural entry point to many topics including trade, hunger, nutrition, energy usage and effects on the climate
•   Students learn from everything they experience at school-not just the intended lessons. In the hours they spend at school they form concrete ideas about food, nutrition and sustainability just by seeing how food is prepared, what is prepared and how the waste system works
•   no contradictory message from the classroom and lunchroom
•   The Dining Experience
•   encourages social interaction and healthy eating
•   Many things can be taught in the lunchroom, like making healthy eating choices, sustainability in the environment, citizenship and civic participation and respect
•   Working to maintain the integrity of low income students who utilize the free and reduced lunch programs by implementing pin number and swipe card programs
•    Food Procurement
• obtaining fresh, seasonal, sustainably grown produce from local and regional sources
• Local in the case of NJ is 50 miles within a region with ample farmland, 300 miles in the context of an urban population or in places where the weather can be extreme

• the average food served in a school lunch program travels more than 1,500 miles

• flexibility in this case is necessary, food service providers will have to change their menus to reflect seasonal availability

• schools might have to work with multiple farmers to procure food

•  What is the benefit to local food?
•   food is more tasty, appealing and nutritious
•  benefitting the local economy as well as supporting local agriculture and improving working conditions and pay for food growers and producers
• Funding

• comes from cash reimbursements and federal government

• some extra money from state and local sources

• Government Subsidized food makes up about 15-20% of what is served in a school lunch on a given day (especially animal proteins)
•  3 avenues of sustainable/responsible food procurement
•   work with a distributor who labels food according to location it originated in, and choose locally grown products. A great example is Revolution Foods, serving California, Colorado, and some of New York and New Jersey! http://revolutionfoods.com/
• Make connections directly with farmers and buy either what is available, or enter into a growing arrangement contract that is better tailored to your district and school needs. Find farmers at county extension services, farmers markets, or through connections with others schools
•  Utilize the school garden! This can be a main source, or supplementary to other food served (may also include a school greenhouse to combat weather extremes)
•    students are more likely to eat things that they grow and prepare themselves, they also learn to respect the harvesting and growing process-reducing food waste!
•  Limitations:
•   local produce may require more storage and handling
•  adequate storage and refrigeration might not exist
•  Proper equipment, tools and staff knowledge can also be sparse
•  Kitchens are built with current food service methods in mind-modern kitchens may have little room for dry storage or refrigerated storage. A majority of food storage currently is in freezers.
•  Truck traffic to drop food off
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  Facilities

• kitchen serves as a learning center, offers fresh food prepared on site

• important to break social and physical barriers between the kitchen and the students-making what happens in the kitchen much more transparent

• observing food preparation helps children to acquire important skills

• New schools are built without what we know of in our homes to be ‘kitchens’, instead they have microwaves and freezers to facilitate heat and serve preparation.

• when cooking with fresh ingredients, allow for 50% of kitchen for food preparation and 50% for storage

   

Policy Options / Model Programs   specific policies or program models, grouped by type, that are profiled 

Legislation Types

•  Project implementation

• Establishes a statewide farm to school program and provides support from local government agencies

• Creating a task force/council

• Establishes a task force, interagency council, or working group to implement and assess farm to school programs

• Pilot program implementation
• Establishes a temporary pilot program for farm to school activities in school districts

• Budget appropriations or creation of an official state fund

• Authorizes additional funding to be set aside or appropriated for farm to school programs

• example: Connecticut (2005)  Bill allocates $100,000 annually to encourage the sale of Connecticut-grown food to schools, restaurants, retailers, and other institutions and businesses in the state

• Grant money allocation

• Authorizes grants for implementation of farm to school programs
• Example: Vermont (2006) Establishes a mini-grant program with maximum awards of $15,000 to help schools increase their use of local farm products and/or teach children about farm to school connections

• Local preference
• Encourages state organizations, agencies and schools to use local produce by allowing purchasing preferences for state-produced agricultural products
• Example: Alaska (2010) Amends the Procurement Code to grant a 7% cost preference for agricultural products harvested in the state – rather than to the lowest bid

• Additional reimbursements
• Allows schools to receive additional reimbursement money for serving local food in meals. Only two states have established such programs
• Example: Washington, D.C. (2010)  The legislation creates an extra 5-cent reimbursement for meals with locally-grown and unprocessed foods   

• Promotional event or program
• Establishes a statewide promotion program or event that will promote local agriculture and foods to children

• Creating a directory or database
• Directs state agencies to establish a website or list of participating schools and producers to facilitate local procurement
• Example: North Carolina (2006) Establishes Farm to School administrator that would develop and maintaining a list of farmers interested in selling farm products to school systems

• Wellness policies
• Encourages farm to school efforts as part of a broader wellness or food security policy

• Resolutions
• Encourage or recommend farm to school programs or policies across the state, in state departments, or on the Federal level
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Glossary of Terms   key words or phrases that the layperson needs to know to understand this issue 

What is Farm to School?

Farm to School programs purchase and feature farm fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans and dairy in their menus. These purchases are from local farmers, expanding markets for farmers. Other aspects frequently in Farm to School programs include: nutrition lessons, cooking classes, school gardens, farm visits and compost/recycling programs. These education programs help to extend the learning that starts with changes in the school cafeteria. (Farmtotable.org) 

What does “locally grown” mean?

Local food can be food grown close to the school, or within the state. There are many different ways to measure how 'local' a food really is, including distance from the school and the relationship to the farmer or grower. This could also entail food grown in a local community or school garden. 

Why is locally produced food better than produce grown elsewhere? 
Food produced locally has been harvested at peak freshness and delivered to the consumer within a short time period. It is therefore often of the highest quality and highest nutritive value. Studies indicate that people are more likely to consume fruits and vegetables when they are of high quality. Locally purchased produce also supports the local economy. (Farmtotable.org)